Europe, it has seemed to us that
it would be of interest to give a description and chemical analysis of
them. We shall say but little of the plant, which has sufficiently
occupied botanists.

[Illustration: Figs. 1 TO 6.--PODS OF THE HOULLE AND MICROSCOPIC
DETAILS.]

The houlle (_Parkia biglobosa_) is a large tree from 35 to 50 feet in
height, with a gray bark, many branches, and large, elegant leaves.
The latter are compound, bipinnate (Fig. 7), and have fifty pairs of
leaflets, which are linear and obtuse and of a grayish green. The
inflorescence is very pleasing to the eye. The flowers, say the
authors of the _Florae Senegambiae Tentamen_, form balls of a dazzling
red, contracted at the base, and resembling the pompons of our
grenadiers (Fig. 8). The support of this latter consists only of male
flowers. The fruit that succeeds these flowers is supported by a
club-shaped receptacle. It consists of a large pod, which at maturity
is 13 inches in length by 10 in width (Fig. 1). This pod is chocolate
brown, quite smooth or slightly tubercular, and is swollen at the
points where the seeds are situated. The pods are straight or slightly
curved. The aborigines of Rio Nunez use the pods for poisoning the
fishes that abound in the watercourses. We do not know what the nature
of the toxic principle is that is contained in these hard pods, but we
well know the nature of the yellowish pulp and of the seeds that
entirely fill the pods.

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--PARKIA BIGLOBOSA.]

Although the pulp forms a continuous whole, each seed easily separates
from the following and carries with it a part of the pulp that
surrounds it and that constitutes an independent mass (Fig. 2). This
pulpy substance, formed entirely of oval cells filled with aleurone,
consists of two distinct layers. The first, an external one of a
beautiful yellow, is from 10 to 15 times bulkier than the internal
one, which likewise is of a beautiful yellow.

[Illustration: Fig. 8--FLOWERS OF PARKIA.]

It detaches itself easily from the seed, while the internal layer,
which adheres firmly to the exterior of the seed, can be detached only
by maceration in water. This fresh pulp has a sweet and agreeable
although slightly insipid taste. Upon growing old and becoming dry, it
takes on a still more agreeable taste, for it preserves its sweetness
and gets a perfume like that of the violet.

As for the seed, which is of a brown color and provided with a hard,
shin